Child's Play has hit quite the milestone, with over $1 million already being …

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Every year, the gaming world comes together to help support Child's Play, the Penny Arcade-run charity that helps sick children have a little bit better Christmas. When you're in the hospital instead of at home, having a DS or some new toys or even a Wii and some games goes a long way to pass the time, and it's also been proven that patients who play certain video games need fewer doses of their pain medication.

Today, Penny Arcade has posted an update on this year's haul, and it's very good news. "With two and a half weeks left to go in the official drive, Child's Play has cracked a million dollars in toys, games, and cash (which will be transformed, via capitalist sorceries, into toys and games shortly). What could I possibly say that this weird, almost stupidly large number does not communicate?" Tycho wrote. Amen to that.

That's great news, but a number of readers have contacted me to ask what's going on with our own Child's Play drive. The good news is that the prizes we put together are pretty great, and we're looking forward to announcing them and getting the drive going again in an official way. Ars Technica has grown much larger than it once was, and the bittersweet part of that means we have to be very careful about the way we do certain things, such as giveaways or contests.

I'm learning the ins and outs of putting together a giveaway in a way that makes as many people as possible happy while keeping us on the right side of a few laws, both in the US and abroad, and we're looking forward to relaunching the drive very soon. While everyone here was frustrated that our first lesson in these matters happened during such a great time to raise money for charity, the good news is that now we have a process for creating contests and giveaways, and hopefully you'll see many more such things in Opposable Thumbs.

Let me leave you on a happy note: before we had to reorganize this year's drive, we challenged the community to raise $1,000 by matching our initial contribution of $500. Not only did people do that in the first few hours, but the ceiling was absolutely smashed. You guys raised over $3,400 in the first three days we had the drive open. There is nothing stopping you from donating now and donating often, but I'd like for you to keep a hold of your receipts until we relaunch the drive so we're all on the same page; this will allow me to make sure everyone is counted as efficiently as possible.

Thanks for the patience and the generosity seen so far, and we can't wait to show you what's coming.